Associations

Communications are at hand with questions concerning partnerships in business between believers and unbelievers, between Christians with knowledge and those who give little or no sign of being spiritually alive from the dead. Others enquire if there be any unequal yoke in owning shares in the various enterprises ruled by men of the world. One writes, "I know of a young brother who has gone into partnership with a Unitarian, another with a Socialist, another with a firm made up of Romanists and Protestants, honorable business men but men of the world-and the young have not been without examples of older Christians linked up in the same way. A word in your Magazine on this subject might be helpful.''

It is with unfeigned sorrow we read such communications. They are like darts sent in one's bosom; for who that loves God's people and is familiar with the Holy Scriptures, can fail to see that an unequal yoke is one of the most successful snares of Satan to bring about the downfall of children of God, and the destruction of true Christian testimony. Israel's ruin as God's people began in their associations with the heathen nations around them-they stand as a spectacle before the eyes of the whole world. They would not, at first, have dreamed of such a thing as bowing down with them to their idols. They rather would think of 'lifting the heathen out of their idolatry by associating with them. The invariable result, however, was the falling step by step to the level of the heathen, until they could bow down with them to stocks and stones and cast alive their infants in sacrifice to Moloch ! Horrible end ! And it all began by, to their mind, harmless associations. Satan knows it is the fine end of the wedge to let in an irresistible flood of evil. It is a pity to even have to speak of this, for one would think there ought to be in every Christian heart a holy dread of being tied to anyone or anything unfriendly to the Lord Jesus-that precious Saviour whose sufferings for our redemption were so great. Should we not fear to wound His love more than aught beside ?

Concerning the owning of shares in the various industries of the land, we are not sufficiently versed in financial affairs to speak with assurance, and unless we can speak as ministering the oracles of God (i Pet. 4:n) it becomes us to say nothing and leave each one to his own conscience. But let everyone of us beware of trifling with conscience, no matter at what cost ; for a Christian with a defiled conscience is like a ship at sea without a rudder. It destroys the power of discernment, and will turn "good soldiers of Jesus Christ" into " Peace-at-any-price " weaklings.

Without entering into details, but leaving them to the individual conscience, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers " is the unequivocal, authoritative command given to the children of God; for "what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness ? and what communion hath light with darkness?" (2 Cor. 6:14.) If for the sake of money we put ourselves under an unequal financial yoke, or for social advancement, position, or unholy love, we accept an unequal yoke, or for a popular and easy path we bow down to an unequal ecclesiastical yoke, we will surely reap accordingly, and prove that "our God is a consuming fire " still. To wilfully disobey His command is to defy His authority; it is to challenge His rod, however patient and long-suffering He may be, and considerate of all circumstances.

In reading 2 Cor. 6 one is struck with the tenderness of the argument upon which the apostle bases his appeal against an unequal yoke. He has in the previous chapters set before them the marvelous grace of God of which he is an ambassador. Then he details what has been his course in carrying out that ambassadorship; what he has had to endure to bring to the Corinthians what had so enriched them for all eternity. The more we pay for an object the more we value it, and he values the saints according to what they have cost to the Lord; and he also, as the Lord's messenger, had suffered to bring them Christ's message. His heart yearns for them. Oh, give me a recompense, he virtually says, for all I have suffered to reach you! And he goes on to tell them what would be to him such a recompense. Redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ at unspeakable cost, he wants them to be separated to Him from all that defiles, as the sacred vessels of the Jewish Temple were separated for sacred uses only. Redeemed by Christ they were His peculiar property, left here on earth only for Him; henceforth to find their pleasure in pleasing Him and serving Him acceptably.

Men will call this narrow-mindedness, no doubt. My brethren, young or old (the old only the more guilty if they have gone into paths of, disobedience), what is your answer ? Is it narrow-mindedness to you to be obedient to our Lord ? Oh, no ! we are sure it is not, but the things of the present have had too much weight, too much importance, and they have dimmed your sight. There is^ thank God, a remedy:"If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (i John 2:i). If we go to Him with our sins, humbly confessing them, He will not push us away. He will cleanse us from all our unrighteousness, and with hearts unburdened and refreshed we will bear renewed and holier testimony to His blessed Name. We will say with the psalmist, " I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever:with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations " (Ps. 89:i). '

Is government opposed to grace

There is a widespread tendency to annul God’s government by means of His grace, as if the two were inconsistent with each other. This is a grave error, and its effects are most serious. If God has freely forgiven the repenting sinner, it does not mean that He has ceased to hate evil and to punish it. Nor does the eternal security of the believer shield him at all from a Father's discipline. He is the very one exposed to that discipline; because of being one who is an object of God's favor, he is responsible to reflect God's character. If he does not do this, he will find that, though God's patience is very great, His holiness cannot be set aside, and "our God is a consuming fire." Trespassing against His holiness surely brings His rod upon us, whether as individuals or a community; even if there be no open trespassing, who among us does not often bemoan the evil tendencies of his nature and pray against them ? The answer 'to such prayers is often painful discipline, because that alone is the effectual remedy. Nothing of this is inconsistent with the grace of God. Indeed it emphasizes it, for it proves God is bent not only on securing us the eternal salvation which His grace has provided, but also in making us fruitful here, that our reward in eternity may abound.

The better we know the grace the more we value the government.